Strasbourg, 08/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has adopted (without amendments) the report by Paul Rübig (EPP, Austria) on the Commission report on the operating of the EURATOM Control and Security Office in 1999-2000. The EP recognises the quality of the work carried out by the Office during that period and welcomes the fact that it did not detect any illegal trafficking of nuclear material within the EU. Learning the lessons of the S-11 attacks last year and taking the enlargement of the EU into account, the European Parliament is calling for the Office's budget to be increased. It also wants a stepping up of EU legislation on nuclear safety and security (echoing Commissioner Loyola de Palacio who on the adoption by the Commission of the Final Report on the Green Paper on the security of the EU's energy supply, announced a "package of measures" before summer.)
The EP wants the Commission to prepare a directive on secure transport and loading of nuclear matter and a directive defining a reference framework for control and certification activities in the domain of nuclear safety. MEPs call for an independent nuclear safety and security office to be set up at the Commission with responsibility for monitoring operators in Member States.